Saturday, March 12, 2011

Coffee with the husband {we have coffee everyday, but today is special because we have it together}...

Sock Monkey Slippers.....

And a SWEET breakfast!!!

I LOVE this baked pancake...so I wanted to share it with you!! This is one of our favorite Saturday morning treats!! I started making this shortly after we got married..and needless to say....it makes it's rounds :) I got the recipe from Betty Crocker.

Baked Pancake

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter

3 eggs or 6 egg whites

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

Assorted fresh berries

Syrup

Powdered sugar

Directions:

First, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the butter in a 9" glass pie pan...

Place it in the oven just long enough to melt it. Remove from oven and spread the butter around the sides and bottom of the pan...

This step is very important!

In a medium bowl, beat eggs just slightly with a whisk or hand beater. They should look something like this...

Still kind of gloppy...whites and yolks should not be blended.

Beat in flour, milk, and salt just until mixed {do not over beat}.

Pour into the pie pan. A lot of the butter will sit on top of the batter kind of like this.....

Fill with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or bananas, whatever you prefer! Today we had strawberries and bananas! You can also dust with powdered sugar, if you'd like {we don't go without it!!}

We usually cut it into 4 segments and eat 2 each. Today I had Maple syrup with my first piece and Raspberry with my second piece! {told you...Saturday morning is a time to SPLURGE!}

These syrups are available at Central Market, I am sure you can get them at Whole Foods as well. If you can't find them, I highly recommend Blackburns!

Today I got creative and added a little squirt of juice from a sweet Meyer lemon! Mixed with the powdered sugar it reminded me of a German Pancake!

Meyer lemons almost look like oranges when you cut them up!

And just to add a little more sappyness {or should I say syrupy-ness} to this post...this is written on the inside of our Mr. and Mrs. coffee cups...which were wedding gifts.....

Isn't that so sweeeeet??? I love it!

Later on today, or.... if I can't get to it today I may post it tomorrow or Monday.... is my latest project....here's a SNEAK! I really love this one!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

As many of you know, the house we live in was a MAJOR fixer-upper.....and I mean a tear it down to the studs, give the outside a facelift and *give the neighbors a sigh of relief* kind of fixer-upper. I have been wanting to share a few before and after photos of our first home, so here they are! Today we're going to start with the kitchen.

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, may remember I was remodeling my kitchen...the week of Christmas. Ummm.......... yeah.

Well, I only told part of the truth. I was actually painting the kitchen/dining room, painting the office, wallpapering and accent wall in the dining room, getting new kitchen counter tops, getting an island built.....and reupholstering a couch. All in about ONE week.

{Don't try this at home, kids}

It sounds insane, I know. But in actuality it was not as big of a deal as it seems. The painter took 3 days to paint our office, kitchen and dining room, the cabinet maker was able to build the island in just 6 days and when he delivered it, all I had to do was put my stuff in it. The granite guys took only about 5 hours to rip off my old counter tops and install my new ones, and my mother in law helped me with the couch, together the two of us knocked it out in just a few days. And my father in law came over and wallpapered one wall in my dining room in just a few hours.

Then we hosted Christmas dinner, just 2 days after it was all done. All went well. I was one happy little housewife.

I promised pictures of my newly remodeled kitchen so I must share. We still have just a few things left to do, but they are not that important to worry about right this very {red hot} second.

This is what the kitchen looked like when Stephen VERY FIRST bought the house. Before any renovation of any kind:

Womp womp womp.

I find it hard to fathom that someone actually lived in this. *that gives me the creepy-crawlies*

Don't you just love the brown paneling?

The oven must have had 70 years worth of grease accumulated inside and out.

I just find all this brown completely disturbing.

I've run out of captions. It's that bad.

The initial remodel was nothing fancy. Stephen had already just about emptied his savings on this house and decided to make the kitchen simple.....kind of a "starter" kitchen. Eventually we would make in nicer, when we had the funds to get what we really want. Here's a PROGRESS photo:

**Edit- This is what the kitchen looked like for about 2 years!**

CLUTTER. It's everywhere. Not a single place to put anything. Approximately .0025 sq. ft. of cooking/prep space and home to the ironing board and iron! Things piled high on top of the refrigerator!The door to the lazy susan is broke off {for the Nth time} in this photo, and there is a huge gaping space in the middle that made you feel like you were a microscopic amoeba floating in outer space! Walking to the refrigerator was like trekking across the Sahara Desert. Oh, and about 12 light bulbs were out at the time. Unfortunately, I didn't take any close-ups of the cracked counter tops. I'm sure you would have loved to see them :(

Fast forward a week or two later and we have yet another progress photo:

Walls have been painted {Cedar Key by Benjamin Moore}, island has been designed and is being built {at the cabinet maker's shop}, and the old counter tops have been ripped off.

And this my friends, is what she looks like now...

Nice and clean. Organized, and totally happy.

A good look at my island....on this side I keep my cook books, part of my Martha Stewart white ware collection, serving bowls, bread basket, and some chargers.

I love my cook top/convection oven....favorite thing in my kitchen!

This is the other side of the island. I have one cabinet door where I keep cutting boards, measuring/mixing bowls and such like...and 3 drawers {the bottom one is deep enough for my pots and pans!} and the skinny door on the end is possibly my favorite part.....

WOW. That'a a lot of tea. In all honesty we really do drink that much tea. And coffee. If you are to ever come over, you won't leave until you've had a cup {or two}!

Speaking of coffee..here's Mr. Cuisinart himself. And a cute little slate board used for inspirational messages and motivation. Today I wrote "Make it a POSITIVE and PRODUCTIVE week!" Just gotta encourage yourself sometimes! Also pictured is a great piece of art by Heartfish Press, purchased from MadeByGirl.

The only thing left that I would like to do is make a box for the microwave and hang it, to clear some more counter top space, and add a few bridge cabinets maybe, as well and replace the stainless steel trash can for a concealed pull-out trash can and recycle bin. I also am thinking about adding hardware to the island. I still have a bunch of extras from our first remodel.

We also purchased a new under-mount 40/60 stainless steel sink, as well as a new faucet.

I love this....my mom got me this serving platter for Christmas... and while it's not being used for a turkey or chicken I use it to hold our fruit and veggies that we are always snacking on. *Yes we snack on fruits and veggies. The other day I saw Stephen running out the door with a whole tomato in his mouth.*

I spend a lot more time in the kitchen now that I have a organized, spacious place to cook and entertain. I have also found that the island creates a nice gathering place when we have people over. It's a guest magnet. Just add drinks and cake and you've got a party!

I am working on collecting the photos of the rest of our remodel. Until then, I'll be posting some other great projects and inspiration!

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About Me

Married my best friend on February 21, 2009. We love to have fun, travel and try new things. We are business owners and entrepreneurs. We own a Custom Window Covering company, Trinity Uptown Window Coverings, based in our hometown of Fort Worth, Tx. I am blogging about our home, business, food and cooking, thrifting, fashion, music, traveling, and everything else that inspires me.